3 WAYS CHINESE TRANSLATION AGENCIES PLAYED A BIG ROLE AT THE 2022 OLYMPICS
Winter Olympic 2022—An overview
2022 Winter Olympics and officially known as XXIV Olympic winter games are commonly referred to as Beijing 2022. It was an international multi-sport that was happening between 4th and 20th February 2022 in Beijing, China. The event started on 2nd February. Chinese translation agencies were quite excited about the event and to witness the people come and attend it so that they can play their part.
They decided at the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur in 2015, Malaysia, that Beijing is going to host the Olympics 22. It was the second time that China hosted the event and also the last of three consecutive Olympics which they hosted in East Asia. Beijing hosted the event earlier in 2008 and it was Summer Olympics. Hence, making Beijing the first city to host the Olympics both in summer and winter.
Games and participant nations
Games further covered a record of 109 events across around 15 disciplines. Winter Olympics 2022 was special because of several games and countries making their debuts in the event. It had big air freestyle skiing and women’s monobob. These two games made their debut in the Olympics and were medal events. It had many mixed competitions as well. There were 2871 athletes who represented 91 teams and competed in the games with Haiti and Saudi Arabia who made their Winter Olympics debut. Total 91 countries took part in the Olympics.
Beijing as a hosting venue and the country had to go through a lot of concerns and controversies for being the host of the event. They particularly related it to human rights violations in China. Similarly, six months earlier the summer Olympics happened in Tokyo, the authorities were quite alert mindful of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three-way Chinese translation companies contributed
Chinese is the world’s oldest language, and it has its speakers in billions. Being the host of the winter Olympics 2022, they played a significant role and ensured there is no miscommunication and other hindrances foreign players face because of the language barrier.
Here are three important ways, they contributed to the mega-event.
Chinese translation agencies were being a support system to all athletes
The basic important way Chinese translation agencies helped at Olympic was that they provided logistical support. One of the translation companies iFLYTEK, which has its expertise in voice recognition as well has been awarded as the official automated translation software supplier of the Beijing 2022 winter Olympics.
They further stated that they were going to facilitate the capital, Beijing, 20 competent and smart translators who provided their services and performed their duties at Beijing Capital International Airport to provide real-time simultaneous interpretation. They facilitated the foreign travelers and players who were entering Beijing.
This was the only airport that they used for the players and games. Translators were there to facilitate the travelers who were checking in the country and checking out. They were particularly required when they had to deal with the customers and border officials.
So, this was a great contribution of the Chinese translation companies that they had made for the Olympics and in the smooth execution of the event.
Agencies’ role in breaking down the barriers of the language
Chinese translation agencies were all help and a complete support system during the mega-event. They played their part very well, particularly by providing interpretation and translation services during the event. iFLYTEK, a big Chinese translation company that was the official translator of the event.
They also tested their artificial intelligence news anchor “Xiaoqing” to support the translation services. The AI was quite important and special because it could deliver English, Russian, Mandarin. French and Spanish translation that too with seamless transitioning between the languages.
Additionally, interpreters and translators from several Chinese translation agencies and interpretation service companies provided translation and interpretation services to bridge the translation gap and to make the event a huge success. They ensured that fans and sports enthusiasts themselves from all over the world can conveniently tune in and enjoy the athleticism of their performance and can celebrate the sports and victory.
Controversies with relevancy to a translation agency
Like many other events, Olympics was also targeted for being controversial and foreign experts also criticized the services and offerings. Due to the hosting location of the Olympics, there was controversy in a relevantly least uncontroversial industry. iFLYTEK, the official translation agency was targeted due to its links with the Chinese communist party and also the role that it plays in the Chinese surveillance state.
Moreover, the USA blacklisted and banned the agency on the accusation of spying on Uyghur Muslims by iFlytek’s AI technology. They further accused the Chinese government had this translation agency’s services and misused voice recognition technology to help with CCP’s campaign that they ran against the Uyghurs, iFLYTEK was also awarded the AI Champion by its own Chinese government. This gesture further supported the claims of close ties between China’s communist party and this particular translation agency.
Translation agencies and their preparations
This company, however, played a great and significant role and it was representing all translation agencies during the event. Before translation agencies, there could have been a big problem occurred. Miscommunication is being one of these. Players could have lost focus and concentration knowing how they can not understand the language and are unable to communicate themselves.
Chinese translation companies actually prepared themselves and with the upcoming language issues prior to the event so that things don’t get delayed and there is the execution of the program timely. Since China was the host country so Chinese to English translation services were also in demand greatly.
Translators volunteers
There were volunteers translators and experts who admired them greatly during the Olympics. They offered their services during the time of need. Translators are always needed whenever there is an event that is in a country. Or else there could be problems leading to serious communication issues. Communication is the key and a prerequisite of successful event execution.
Linguistic challenges during the games
Olympic games bring nations and teams together. There is healthy competition and representatives from over 200 countries come over and communicate. The athletes, their crew and staff, and members of national and international committees and journalists come together. Also, they all had to communicate regardless of their native languages.
The event that happened in Beijing China brought more than 80,0000 officials together and that included journalists and other support staff in one place. It was, however, a little less number as compared to the past events and that was due to travel restrictions. There was limited access due to the global pandemic.
The organizers have to take care of multiple factors, they had to ensure a smooth event and also that the participant and players enjoy their stay in the Olympics. Additionally, they ensure that they can get benefited from all services of the games. It is almost impossible to cater to the needs of this large number of people individually.
What can be done is making it easy for the people to communicate and inform them about facilities they require. Considering all these situations, it would be safe to say that translation and interpretation services during such an event should be taken as Olympics sport too.
As for athletes, since they keep on traveling for sports reasons, so athletes are mostly bilingual. Most of them know the English language and French as a second language. However, this is not a hard and fast rule that all athletes would be bilingual and would be speaking and understanding English or French, which are two mandatory languages of the Olympics.
In such cases, translators and interpreters play a significant role and facilitate the athletes on their arrival, during the event and post each competition where they need to speak about things.
Linguists team working remotely
It is important to note that in the previous Olympics that happened in Tokyo in 2022, a team of linguists worked remotely due to pandemic conditions. The team had around 100 interpreters who were producing the official information in more than 10 languages besides Japanese. During 2022 Chinese writing translation was also executed so that foreigners have no worries reading the written Chinese content.
This was a great idea to entertain the maximum masses in their native language so that everyone can enjoy the games and celebrate the victories of their country fellows.
Final words
Translators and interprets play a vital role in the Olympics and the same events that are being conducted on the international level. They ensure there is no barrier of language and people get to communicate easily. The team of translators also helps people to overcome language barriers and help them achieve their goals and dreams.
The role and contribution of technology stand out in its place and works as an amplifier. Similarly, human resources are also essential, and industry cannot function without human brains. Undoubtedly, the Olympics could not have been this huge success without the role and significance of the Chinese translation agencies.
